Posted in: Celebrity Jewelry
Marie Dressler, publicity shot for MGM, 1930. Photo from Wikimedia Commons, public domain (PD-US).
Marie Dressler (1868-1934) was a famous actress who played against many leading ladies, including Greta Garbo. In this photo (click link), wearing what became her staid public affairs outfit--a black velvet Adrian dress paired with a string of pearls and a fur wrap--poses with an Oscar. The comedienne won the golden statue in the category of Best Actress in 1930 for her role as Min in Min and Bill. Adapted by Frances Marion and Marion Jackson from Lorna Moon's novel, Dark Star, the movie portrays Min joins Bill and Nancy to form their "cobbled-together family" which kept audiences in stitches as Min attempted to protect her daughter's innocence from the letches who frequented their dockside inn.
Ms. Dressler went on to achieve tremendous fame during her four short years in Hollywood. Nominated for Best Actress for her starring role as housekeeper Emma in Clarence Brown's Emma, Ms. Dressler walked the red carpet one more time in 1932, likely wearing a similar Adrian dress and a string a pearls. Though the Oscar went that year to Helen Hayes for her performance in The Sin of Madelon Claudet, but true to style, I imagine Ms. Dressler shone with her usual ebullience during the proceedings.
Not your typical glamorous movie star, Ms. Dressler does not appear to be credited with starting any fashion trends. However, she was known in her early years to have a boisterous sense of style, which she appears to have toned down, at least for public appearances, in 1919 {1}. In her early days, spent on Broadway and Vaudeville, she favored bold colors, shimmering sequins, and fanciful feather boas.
This fits the larger-than-life image her onscreen personalities predicate. However, at a party in 1919, it seems she exchanged this flamboyant attire for classic elegance. When harangued by friend Hedda Hopper, Ms. Dressler responded, "Stinker. I'm bustin' a gut to behave like a lady and nobody appreciates the effort it takes."{1}
During this time, the aging actress was struggling to make a comeback in the biz. After a brief success with Tillie's Nightmare (1910), the actress fell on hard times and wound up selling Liberty Bonds during the war. Devoid of acting offers, she lost everything. Everything, that is, except her good will among friends. One such friend gave her a discounted room at the Ritz, where she eventually went to work as a hostess.
However, her dream to entertain persisted. The good will of her friends paired with her faithful persistence in pursuit of an acting career, despite her age of 50 years, slowly led to her first "talkie," Anna Christie. Her performance as washed-up tramp Marthy re-launched Ms. Dressler into a stardom that was unheard of for a woman of her age (60, by then).
Her onscreen characters typically wore frumpy dresses and scant jewelry, which no one would say flattered the actress. These costumes, however, were perfectly tailored to her Depression-era characters, and they aided the comedienne in her portrayal of down-on-their-luck Depression-era women.
Off screen, when not attending black tie events, Ms. Dressler favored the color green. She owned abundant hats, and perhaps she still maintained a vibrant love of furs and sequins, though the record is unclear. It sounds as though she wore minimal jewelry, pinkie rings and a string of beads typically. {2}
Although she wrote in 1924, as her tide began to turn, that she "could never see the sense in owning large quantities of jewelry and keeping it in a safe deposit box or leaving it around in hotels and in taxicabs" {3}, it seems she did not allow her own opinion stop her from investing in certain personal effects, including jewelry, which were valued at $11,505 at the disbursement of her will in 1934. (Her personal effects would now be worth nearly $200,000.)
Among these jewels were a large diamond bracelet the actress left to Hallie Phillips, her closest East Coast friend, and a pin of pearls and diamonds she bequeathed to long-time friend Frances Marion, who landed Ms. Dressler her award-winning roles in Anna Christie and Min and Bill.
Ms. Dressler was a star like no other. She had an open-door policy on the set, and friends frequently found her sewing or knitting in between takes. Her daily lunches at the commissary were grand events, with everyone in sight of her stopping to say hello.
According to Elaine St. Johns, daughter to Hollywood author, Adela Rogers St. Johns, "Everyone should have a Marie in their lives. The younger stars hung onto her like crazy. She was a very open person and a friend to everyone. She didn't have any feuds. Nobody was out to get her." {4}
Clearly, though no fashion maven as we're used to seeing on the red carpet these days, Marie Dressler was a matchless actress and a beautiful woman in every way that counts.
~Angela Magnotti Andrews
NOTES
1. Kennedy, Matthew. Marie Dressler: A Biography. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., 1999, p. 107.
2. Ibid., p. 184.
3. Dressler, Marie. The Life Story of an Ugly Duckling. University of California, 1924, p. 196.
4. Kennedy, p. 184. 
11 years ago
3 view(s)